Why Special Populations Are Not the Target of Family Preservation Services: A Case for Program Reform

The number of children who have been placed outside their homes of origin as a result of abuse, neglect, delinquency, emotional problems, or developmental disabilities, is astronomical and steadily increasing. Of this number, special populations like children of color continue to be disproportionately represented. Intensive family preservation, a program that attempts to reduce out-of-home placement rates, has not demonstrated empirically, a sustained record of success in the reduction of placement rates among special populations. The purpose of the current study was to understand the manner in which special populations are targeted for services by examining the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of a national sample of family preservation workers. Results indicate a significant bias against targeting family preservation services to special populations in general, and children of color in particular.S pecific recommendations about the targeting of special populations are given

Targeting Special Populations for Family Preservation: The Influence of Worker Competence and Organizational Culture

Today there are approximately 581,000 children in the United States foster care system. Children of color, one special population group, are disproportionately represented in the foster care system. Family preservation, a program that aims to improve family functioning and thus decrease the need for foster care, has been examined closely. Some researchers believe that family preservation programs have failed partly due to practitioners\u27 inability to target appropriate families (Feldman, 1990; Schuerman, Rzepnicki & Littell, 1994). Additionally, research confirms that children of color are not the target of family preservation services (Denby, Curtis, & Alford, 1998). Improvements in the effectiveness of family preservation will require many types of reform both internal and external to the program. Among the types of internal reform needed is accurate targeting of services. Given the overrepresentation of children of color in the foster care system, this group must be among those who are targeted for services. The results of a national survey of 254 family preservation workers reveal a profile of the worker who is likely to target special populations, including children of color, for family preservation services. A case is made for service improvements and training to facilitate the profiled workers\u27 competencies

Nucleosynthesis in Outflows from Black Hole-Neutron Star Merger Disks With Full GRν\nuRMHD

Along with binary neutron star mergers, the in-spiral and merger of a black hole and a neutron star is a predicted site of $r$-process nucleosynthesis and associated kilonovae. For the right mass ratio, very large amounts of neutron rich material may become unbound from the post-merger accretion disk. We simulate a suite of four post-merger disks with full-transport general relativistic neutrino radiation magnetohydrodynamics. We find that the outflows from these disks are very close to the threshold conditions for robust $r$-process nucleosynthesis. For these conditions, the detailed properties of the outflow determine whether a full $r$-process can or cannot occur, implying that a wide range of observable phenomena are possible. We show that on average the disk outflow lanthanide fraction is suppressed relative to the solar isotopic pattern. In combination with the dynamical ejecta, these outflows imply a kilonova with both blue and red components

Inoculum levels of Meloidogyne hispanica and M. javanica affect nematode reproduction, and growth of tomato genotypes

A pot experiment was conducted to determine the effects of three inoculum levels (2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 eggs/plant) on the reproduction of Meloidogyne hispanica and M. javanica isolates and growth of the susceptible tomato genotypes Easypeel and Moneymaker, and genotypes Motelle and VFnt-Cherr, which possess the Mi-gene, at 25±2°C. sixty days after inoculation, roots were assessed for gall index (Gi), reproduction factor (Rf=final/initial population density) and reproduction index (RI=Rf in the Mi-gene tomato plants/Rf in tomato Easypeel × 100). shoot and root lengths and fresh and dry root and shoot weights were also recorded. both species of Meloidogyne reproduced at all inoculum levels on all four tomato genotypes (4≤GI≤5 and 3.44≤Rf≤317.30). The M. javanica isolate, obtained from an infected potato field, was identified as natural and partially virulent to the Mi-gene (3.71≤RI≤20.19). This emphasizes the need for new sources of resistance to root-knot nematodes and for testing Mi-tomato plants for their susceptibility to local populations. Reproduction of M. javanica and M. hispanica on the resistant Motelle and VFNT-Cherr was significantly less than on the susceptible Easypeel and Moneymaker. VFNT-Cherr was more resistant than Motelle, which suggest an influence of the genetic background of the plants on the nematode response. For Easypeel and Moneymaker, there was a trend of decreased plant growth parameters with increasing inoculum level, irrespective of the nematode species, due to damage caused by the increasing number of nematodes that invaded plant roots. However, these values on Motelle and VFnt-Cherr remained relatively stable regarding shoot and total shoot plus root dry weight. the reproductive rate of M. javanica was greater than that of M. hispanica on all four genotypes tested, and tomato plants inoculated with M. hispanica had greater growth parameters. the resistance response of the Mi-tomato plants was independent of the Meloidogyne species, however, because both species gave similar Ris

Correlation between HIV viral load and aminotransferases as liver damage markers in HIV infected naive patients: a concordance cross-sectional study

Abnormalities in liver function tests could be produced exclusively by direct inflammation in hepatocytes, caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Mechanisms by which HIV causes hepatic damage are still unknown. Our aim was to determine the correlation between HIV viral load, and serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) as markers of hepatic damage in HIV naive infected patients

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction